It is not just law at Travers Smith. We treat our clients’ business as our business, their dispute as our dispute, their challenges as ours.

We act for publicly listed and private companies, private equity and financial sponsors, and other business enterprises involved in large and complex UK and cross-border matters, transactions and disputes.

Our clients know that, wherever in the world they or their ambitions lie, we will work as one of their team to get things done. And they know that we will do so in a straight-talking, thoughtful and open way.

Diversity and independence of thought are key to our success. We know each other well and we know that we get the best results when we act as a team – not just within our individual departments, but right across our firm where we welcome views from everyone. 

Our business comprises the following main practice areas: commercial; IP and technology; competition; corporate M&A and ECM; dispute resolution; derivatives and structures products; employment; finance; financial services and markets; funds; incentives and remuneration; operational risk and environment; pensions; private equity and financial sponsors; real estate; regulatory investigations; and tax.

Our vacation schemes take place at five points in the year. Two in the winter and three in the summer, and each is a one-week in-person scheme. 

Vacation scheme students will be paid £750 for completing the week. 

The scheme will follow our internal programme, which includes a number of talks, workshops, and a negotiating exercise. There will also be department insights and close contact with trainees. The week is designed specifically for students to be given an authentic taste of a City lawyer's work. There are also working lunches and informal evening events. 

The exact dates of each scheme are: 5 December – 9 December, 12 December – 16 December, 19 June – 23 June, 26 June – 30 June, and 3 July – 7 July. 

Applications will be opened on the below dates:

• winter vacation scheme: 5 September 2022 and will close on 9 October 2022.
• summer vacation scheme: 10 October 2022 and will close on 15 January 2023. 

Interviews will only be allocated once all applications have been processed.

Please note our interview process will be held virtually and run by a senior member of our graduate recruitment panel. For more information on the panel please visit out recruitment team webpage.

The firm’s comprehensive training programme ensures that trainees experience a broad range of work. All trainees sit with partners and associates, which ensures a refreshing lack of hierarchy and unparalleled opportunities to learn by osmosis from some of the most senior people at the firm. It also means that trainees receive individual and extensive training from experienced lawyers and can look forward to client contact, and the responsibility that goes with it, from day one. 

During the two-year training contract, you will rotate through four different legal departments. Trainees spend six months in one of our corporate departments and another six months in either the dispute resolution or the employment departments. For the other two rotations trainees are asked to indicate a department of interest, which includes the opportunity to spend six months in the firm’s Paris office.

Travers Smith is a collaborative firm – we treat each other with respect and encourage our people to be themselves. We are very proud of the close-knit, supportive and non-hierarchical culture this creates. 

Our society and communities

Appointed our first pro bono partner, Sam Cottman, with the practice having tripled in size over the past two years. 

Lawyers from every department have been involved in pro bono, working on over 100 matters in the past 12 months. 

Spearheaded the launch of the Domestic Abuse Response Alliance – an alliance of seven leading law firms who provide pro bono representation to survivors of domestic abuse in need of protective injunctions. This is the largest pro bono advocacy service for survivors of domestic abuse ever assembled.

With our largest cohort of mentors to date, we launched the sixth year of the pioneering LGBT+ mentoring scheme in partnership with Just Like Us, aimed at providing LGBT+ graduates with the skills, confidence and support they need as they transition from university life to full time employment.

We are one of the founding sponsors of a new LGBTQI Legal Aid Fund, in partner with our longstanding charity partner, GiveOut, which will help provide funding and pro-bono support to LGBTQI organisations using the law and courts to advance equality.

We launched the seventh year of our innovative CSR Art Programme, supporting the largest cohort of graduate artist to date. 

Expanded our partnership with GROW mentoring, a social mobility related scheme aimed at supporting aspiring solicitors from disadvantaged backgrounds access careers in law. 

Launched a new social mobility group to help ensure careers at the firm are accessible to all and published a "Telling Stories: Understanding Social Mobility" booklet to provide an insight into the backgrounds and careers of people at the firm. 

Became Level 2 accredited under the Government's Disability Confident employer scheme. 

Our sustainable future

Confirmed our move to Stonecutter Court in 2025, a new landmark 13-storey building, which will deliver 250,000 square feet of high-quality and flexible office space with market-leading sustainability credentials.

Currently reporting a recycling rate of 93% across eight streams and since Jan 2022 we have saved 60.363t CO2 entering the atmosphere due to recycling our waste instead of sending to landfill – this converts to 60.3 trees being planted.

In the wake of pandemic restrictions being lifted we have achieved 26% reduction in the carbon emissions associated with both flight/air and Eurostar travel.

Introduced 'Use up Fridays' and 'Meat free Mondays' in our office café Braithwaite's ensuring we produce minimal waste which in turn supports our sustainability goals.

Diversity and inclusion 

Our approach to diversity and creating an inclusive workplace goes beyond just ticking a box. We value everything that makes us unique and we recognise that celebrating our differences helps make the firm a special place to work. With a focus on allyship and role modelling, we are committed to creating a fully inclusive workplace where everyone can be their authentic selves. 

Supporting our people

We have five fully inclusive professional networks, each led by a partner to provide high level strategic input, connectivity and support for our people. These include: 

• Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic 
• LGBTQ+
• Gender balance 
• Faith resources 
• Enable (which focuses on accessibility needs) 

Strategic partnerships

We have developed partnerships with other external networks and organisations aimed at promoting a culture of inclusion and mutual respect in industry and in the wider community, including; Stonewall, myGwork, City Solicitors Horizons, Aspiring Solicitors, Rare Recruitment and JustLikeUs, STRIVE, WCAN, BIUCAC. 

Corporate social responsibility (CSR)

From working with emerging artists to supporting refugees and asylum seekers, our award-winning CSR programme is diverse, exciting and ever-expanding.

Working with local communities

We are committed to working with our local communities, developing meaningful ties with schools, universities and community groups and using our own influence and legal expertise to help give people better opportunities to access the legal profession. Highlights of our work include:

• Lawyers in Schools Programme 
• Prime work experience
• Reading Partners
• BEE Financial Literacy 
• Prospects 
• GROW mentoring 

Charitable giving 

We create meaningful, lasting and substantive partnerships with all the charities with whom we work. We provide substantial financial support to a nominated major charity partner (on a two-year basis). Our current major charity partner is the Felix Project, a charity that collects surplus food from food retailers and wholesalers and then redistributes it to charities and schools that provide food for those in need. Alongside our major charity partnership, the firm supports 100s of other smaller charities via the Travers Smith Foundation.

CSR Art Programme 

The Art Programme is at the heart of our Corporate Social Responsibility work and underlines our CSR commitment from the moment someone steps into our offices. Delivered in partnership with The University of Westminster and The Royal College of Art, with support from Serpentine Galleries, our Art Programme supports emerging artists with the transition from student life to professional practice.

Pro bono 

Our award-winning pro bono programme is designed to provide individuals, community groups, charities and social enterprises, both in the UK and abroad, with free legal advice and representation. The programme targets the most impactful partnerships and legal work in the following four sectors:

Climate, environment, and sustainability

Diversity, inclusion and social mobility

Vulnerable groups (refugees, survivors of domestic violence and survivors of human trafficking)

Rule of Law

Key pro bono clients include: 

• Refugees at Home
• The Chancery Lane Project
• JUSTICE
• The Green Finance Institute 
• National Centre for Domestic Violence
• City YMCA 
• WWF-UK

Earlier this year we launched the Domestic Abuse Response Alliance (DARA), which was founded by partner and head of pro bono, Sam Cottman. DARA is an alliance of seven leading law firms who will provide pro bono representation to survivors of domestic abuse in need of protective injunctions. For more information see: www.daraproject.org.

GDL and LPC paid in full and maintenance grant provided.

• Commercial
• IP & technology
• Competition
• Corporate/M&A
• Equity capital markets
• Derivatives & structured products
• Dispute resolution
• Employment
• Finance
• Financial services & markets
• Investment funds
• Incentives & remuneration
• Operational risk & environment
• Pensions
• Private equity & financial sponsors
• Real estate
• Tax

• General Commercial
• Corporate & Commercial

• London
• Paris

• A4ID
• Brighter Futures Zambia
• Giving Time
• Legal Advice Centres
• Refugees at Home

• Aspiring Solicitors
• BEE Financial Literacy
• City Horizons
• City Parents
• Educating Matters
• Lawyers in Schools
• PRIME
• Rare Recruitment
• Reading Partners
• Stonewall
• The Women's Sport Trust